One Year Anniversary of Flight MH370 Disappearance

Photographer: Wu Hong

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people, including 154 Chinese passengers, disappeared an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on its way towards Beijing on 08 March 2014. A huge search operation in the southern Indian Ocean since then has failed to find the wreckage.

On 24 March 2014, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak issued a statement saying that based on their investigation, the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 had 'ended' in the southern Indian Ocean.

Nearly a year has passed, many relatives of the Chinese passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 still do not believe their family members are dead. They use social media like Wechat on their mobile phones to connect with other relatives to talk about the event. On the Wechat group, they share updates of news about MH370 and pray for safe return of their loved ones.

The group of relatives gathers three times a week at the official MH370 relatives center, an area set up by the Chinese government and Malaysia Airlines for the relatives within the remote Shunyi Beijing airport where they can submit their queries to a Malaysia Airlines staff. They would often stage protests outside the Malaysian embassy and the main Beijing office of Malaysia Airlines in downtown Beijing.

In January, Malaysia attempted to draw a line under the MH370 disaster, declaring it an accident with the loss of all on board. Many of the relatives felt themselves insulted. "How could they do that? Right up to today there is no compelling evidence," says Gan Mingsong, who lost his 47-year-old son.

The airline company has held out the initial compensation payments for relatives, 'But no one has signed' , one of the relatives Zhang Yongli said. he says. All of them are not willing to accept the compensation offered by the airline company and are still hoping for the return of their family members.